About 30 people gathered in Black River falls to hear speakers talking about how frac sand mining can lead to environmental damage and possible health problems. The meeting was organized by Andi Cloud, who founded Migizi Advocates for Turtle Island. She says to successfully fight the powerful and wealthy frac sand mining industry, people of all stripes need to band together.

“That’s the only way we’re going to be successful is that if we all come together, whether you are a Ho-Chunk, whether you are Ojibwe, whether you are white, just everybody who cares about Mother Earth, who wants to keep her as she is now without all this devastation of contamination.”

Retired sociology professor and mining activist Al Gedicks was among the speakers on the panel. He compared the fight over frac sand mining to the battle over the proposed Crandon sulfide ore mine in the 1990s.